Czech foreign ministry cyberattacked by ‘foreign state’

The foreign ministry in the Czech Republic suffered a cyber attack in past weeks, the foreign minister said Tuesday.

Lubomír Zaorálek told reporters the ministry's experts believe the attack was perpetrated by "some foreign state" and described it as "very sophisticated," adding that "the method of the attack very much resembled attacks against the internet system of the Democratic Party in the U.S.”

Hackers targeted dozens of email accounts, including the minister's own email, he said.

The ministry detected the attack in early January 2017 and studied the hackers for several weeks. Their investigation showed hackers breached the external mailing system of the ministry but couldn't obtain classified files. The internal mailing system, which contains more sensitive information, wasn’t breached according to the minister.

The Czech Republic is holding general elections later this year.

Several European countries, including Germany, France and the Netherlands, have warned of the risk of cyberattacks disrupting their elections this year.